Trailer of the film

A sad movie telling a great story.

Spanish Sales Hit 1 Million

This was posted in John Boyne's blog:
"Great news this week from my Spanish publisher, Salamandra. Their edition of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, titled EL NINO CON EL PIJAMA DE RAYAS, has broken through the magic 1 million sales mark. The book has been in the top 3 of the bestseller charts for almost a year now. Big thanks to all the Spanish booksellers and readers who have supported the book so much." Posted on June 8th, 2008 by John Boyne.

Thanks to him for such a brilliant book.

If you want to have a look at the author's blog, click here.
And you can add him to your facebook.

John Boyne's talk and reading

Dublin City Public Libraries and Ireland Literature Exchange presented a series of talks and readings, 'In Other Words . . .Irish Literature in Translation in Your Library' in the Central Library in November 2010.
Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian says: This initiative, organised by Ireland Literature Exchange and Dublin’s Central Library, offers an opportunity to showcase the impressive range of Ireland’s literature in translation. It is particularly apt in the year that Dublin achieved recognition as a UNESCO City of Literature that members of the public can meet with some of the writers who made this designation possible.

John Boyne is reading a section from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which is from the centre of the book.
Click here to read the script.
Click here to listen to the talk

Source: http://www.dublincitypubliclibraries.com/in-other-words

John Boyne's interview with Teenreads.com

John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a profound and thought-provoking novel set during the Holocaust and told from the perspective of a young child who befriends a boy "on the other side of the fence." In this interview with Teenreads.com's contributing writer Alexis Burling, Boyne discusses the parallels between the two children and explains why he chose to leave certain pertinent details deliberately ambiguous. He also elaborates on his main character's naïveté and its implications of society on a larger scale, examines the varying strengths of his female characters, and shares his enthusiasm for historical fiction.

Click here to read the interview.

Source: http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-boyne-john.asp

Author’s Note

The following is an author's note which appears in the American edition of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas (notice the American spelling in the title!)

In April 2004 an image came into my mind of two boys sitting on either side of a fence. I knew they had been taken away from their homes and friends and brought, separately, to a terrible place. Neither of them knew what they were doing there, but I did, and it was the story of these two boys, who I named Bruno and Shmuel, that I wanted to tell.

The issue of writing about the Holocaust is, of course, a contentious matter and any novelist who explores it had better be sure about his or her intentions before setting out. It’s presumptuous to assume that from today’s perspective one can truly understand the horrors of the concentration camps, although it’s the responsibility of the writer to uncover as much emotional truth within that desperate landscape as he possibly can.

Throughout writing and re-writing the novel, I believed that the only respectful way for me to deal with this subject was through the eyes of a child, and particularly through the eyes of a rather naïve child who couldn’t possibly understand the terrible things that were taking place around him. For after all, only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.

Fences, such as the one at the heart of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, still exist; it is unlikely that they will ever fully disappear. But whatever reaction you may have to this story, I hope that the voices of Bruno and Shmuel will continue to resonate with you as they have with me. Their lost voices must continue to be heard; their untold stories must continue to be recounted. For they represent the ones who didn’t live to tell their stories themselves.

John Boyne

Dublin, 2006

Book reviews on Glogster

Have a look at these posters book reviews!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (click here)
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (click here)
Schmuel (click here)

Enjoy them!

Elegant storytelling with emotional impact.

Read a book review by Ed Wright about The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (click here)

Source: http://www.theage.com.au

John Boyne

I was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1971, and studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and creative writing at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where I was awarded the Curtis Brown prize.

My early writing consisted mostly of short stories and I published a number of them. My first story, The Entertainments Jar, was shortlisted for the Hennessy Literary Award in Ireland. In total, I’ve published about 70 short stories.

I’ve published eight novels, six for adults: THE THIEF OF TIME (2000), THE CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS (2001), CRIPPEN (2004), NEXT OF KIN (2006), MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (2008) and THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE (2009) and two for younger readers: THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS (2006) and NOAH BARLEYWATER RUNS AWAY (2010).

My 2006 novel, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, was made into an award-winning Miramax film. The novel itself won 2 Irish Book Awards, the Bisto Book of the Year, and was shortlisted or won a host of international awards. Amongst other accolades, it spent more than 80 weeks at no.1 in Ireland, topped the New York Times Bestseller List, and was the bestselling book in Spain in both 2007 and 2008. Worldwide, it has sold more than 5 million copies.

My novels are published in 42 languages.

My eighth novel, NOAH BARLEYWATER RUNS AWAY, a book for younger readers, was published in October 2010 and reached no.1 on the Irish Bestseller Chart. It was also shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year. It’s currently due to be published in 20 languages.

My ninth novel, THE ABSOLUTIST, will be published in the UK in May 2011.

I live in Dublin.

John Boyne

Praise for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (click on the title to see John Boyne's official website)

Winner: Irish Book Award Children’s Book of the Year, Irish Book Award People’s Choice Book of the Year, Bisto Book of the Year, Que Leer Award Best International Novel of the Year (Spain), Orange Prize Readers Group Book of the Year.

Shortlisted for British Book Award, the Border’s New Voices Award; the Ottaker’s Children’s Book Prize, the Paolo Ungari Literary Award (Italy) , Irish Book Award Irish Novel of the Year Award]]; the Leeds Book Award; the North-East Book Award; the Berkshire Book Award; the Sheffield Book Award; the Lancashire Book Award; Prix Farniente (Belgium); Flemish Young Readers Award; Independent Booksellers Book of the Year; Deutschen Jugend Literatur Preis (Germany).

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the International IMPAC Literary Award

Reviews
' A small wonder of a book' Guardian

' This is what fiction is supposed to do: introduce you to the minds of those who wouldn't ordinarily meet' Guardian

' Quite impossible to put down, this is the rare kind of book that doesn't leave your head for days' Becky Stradwick, Borders, The Bookseller


'Packed with overstones that remain in the imagination ... it stays just ahead of its readers before delivering its killer punch in the final pages' Nick Tucker, Independent


' The Holocaust as a subject insists on respect, precludes criticism, prefers silence. One thing is clear: this book will not go gently into any good night' Observer


' An extraordinary book ... a powerful story, simply told' Irish Examiner


'It is a novel that inspires thought and difference of opinion, it is a book that deserves to be read, to be discussed, to be held close to the heart' Achuka

' A wonderful, haunting story' The Bookseller


' A book so simple, so seemingly effortless, that it's almost perfect' Irish Independent


' Overwhelmingly powerful' Carousel


' A book that lingers in the mind for quite some time. It is a subtle, calculatedly simple and ultimately moving story. For any age' Irish Times

A new book for a new season

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne is the book I have chosen for this new term.

To tell you the truth I had read some reviews about the book and I was looking for it, but it was impossible to find it in English, so on one of my journeys to Wigan I bought it. When I saw the book sitting on the bookshop shelf of Waterstone’s, it screamed at me, “pick me, pick me!” How can I say no when a book just screams at you, begging to be taken home and read. So I got two copies, one for me and another for my friend’s daughter who was nine years old.

The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we can read some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case the author thinks that would spoil the reading of the book. It is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about.

If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn’t a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.

Fences like this exist all over the world. I hope you never have to encounter such a fence.

I would highly recommend that you go and get this book. You’ll enjoy it.

Hey, ... are you talking to me?

Have you ever get that “ah-ha!” feeling when you read a book? You come across a passage that practically shouts out loud, “Hey,guy. Pay attention—this is YOU!”

I love that books can do that…make us see ourselves…recall feelings and experiences…and put them all into words!

Discussion question:

Is there a particular character—or moment—in the book you’re reading now that gave you a sense of self-recognition? What about in other books? If you’ve come across those passages, can you recall how they made you feel?